IF the popular saying that “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” is anything to go by, then the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TAMA) has a Herculean task to ensure that the metropolis maintains its enviable position as the neatest city in the country.
Unfortunately, however, it seems the going is becoming tough for the TAMA to tackle sanitation issues head-on as some suburbs, including schools in the area, have been engulfed in filth for months.
Some residents also seem to be throwing refuse about indiscriminately, thereby worsening the sanitation issues in the metropolis.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, acknowledged during the recent second ordinary meeting of the TAMA that “for the past one year or so, it has been difficult to manage waste, because the government has withdrawn the sanitation fund”.
The authorities of the Tishegu Anglican School Complex and residents of Nyanshegu have, for instance, expressed grave concern about the inability of the TAMA to clear heaps of refuse in their respective areas.
A visit by this reporter to the Tishegu School revealed that the situation was critical as heaps of refuse had engulfed the refuse containers sited within the school compound.
The area is certainly becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the schoolchildren are likely to be attacked by such diseases as malaria and cholera.
At Nyanshegu, along the Sangani Road, this reporter spotted another refuse dump and yet another one located in between houses in the same community. The stench at the area was enough to tell the filth and the health hazards the refuse posed to residents in that suburb.
According to Mr Awal Abukari, a Class Five teacher of the Tishegu Anglican School, the authorities of the school had complained consistently to the TAMA and appealed to it to do something about the situation before it got out of hands, but all in vain.
“This rubbish has been here for the past four months and nobody seems to care. I have reported this issue to the assembly, but the situation still remains the same,” Mr Abukari further explained.
The Headmistress of the Primary Division of the school, Madam Habiba Montia, also expressed regret at the way food vendors in the area dumped refuse indiscriminately in the area.
“Apart from that, some of the people have been using my school as a thoroughfare, which eventually affects teaching and learning. We need a security officer to check these things, particularly during the day,” she stated.
The TAMA spends, on average, GH¢800,000 a year on sanitation alone.
According to the MCE, the amount was “more than our total annual budget for all projects and programmes”.
Time without number, the MCE has complained that obsolete and over-aged waste collection trucks have hindered the TAMA’s efforts to effectively deal with waste management in the metropolis.
“For the past two months, we have experienced a significant breakdown of our waste collection trucks because of old age; some of them are as old as 21 years. This has resulted in large heaps of refuse in our communities,” Mr Adam lamented at a function organised by TAMA last year.
In 2006, the TAMA took delivery of sanitation equipment comprising two refuse trucks, 10 refuse containers, 60 tricycles and 100 litter bins which were manufactured by the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) in Tamale.
The TAMA also entered into an agreement with Zoomlion Ghana Limited to, among other things, help maintain the refuse trucks and collect waste for a fee in some suburbs, including the Central Business District of the metropolis.
One is, therefore, tempted to ask what has happened to the entire plan to deal effectively with sanitation problems in the metropolis.
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